Yahoo Autos Blaney tops final Cup Series practice session of 2024 at Phoenix
Ryan Blaney paced NASCAR Cup Series practice Friday at Phoenix Raceway, leading the way for the four title contenders in the process.
Blaney, the defending series champion, put down a fast lap of 132.479mph (27.174s). While most of the fast laps were set early in practice, he went to the top of the leaderboard on his 21st lap before running a total of 46 laps in practice.
Martin Truex Jr. was second fastest at 132.324mph and Kyle Larson was third at 132.193mph. William Byron, another title contender, was fourth at 132.004mph. He ran 50 laps total.
Austin Cindric rounded out the top five at 131.989mph. Corey Lajoie was sixth at 131.858mph; Ty Gibbs, seventh at 131.848mph; Denny Hamlin, eighth at 131.791mph and Joey Logano, the third title contender, ninth. Logano’s fastest lap was 131.757mph. He ran 43 laps.
Chase Briscoe completed the top 10 at 131.738mph.
Tyler Reddick was the slowest of the four championship contenders, ending up 21st at 130.794mph and ran 24 laps.
There was one caution during practice. Jimmie Johnson briefly halted proceedings when he spun off Turn 2 early in the session. He did manage to kept his car off the wall and ran 35th.
There are 40 drivers entered in the season finale.
Blaney was also fastest in the best 10 consecutive lap average. Logano was second in the category followed by Hamlin, Larson, and Byron. Reddick was the 10th fastest of the drivers who clocked 10 consecutive laps.
NEXT: Cup Series qualifying at 5:05 p.m. ET Saturday.
